Voice Research Phonation into a Straw as a Voice Building Exercise Ingo R. Titze My good friend Anne-Maria Laukkanen from Tampere, Finland inspired me to write this column. She has been researching a scientific explanation of the clinical utility of phonating into a tube to improve vo- cal efficiency. In Finland, voice clini- cians use glass or metal tubes, of various lengths and diameters, to fa: cilitate “ease” of phonation. The ba- sic intent is to alter the acoustic load (the vocal tract impedance), which is normally very low in comparison to the glottal impedance in a vowel. For a considerable time period, I didn’t have access to the bone fide tubes, so I picked up various straws ina cafeteria, ranging from the very small diameter coffee-stirring straw toa large one used for sucking thick milkshakes. Ibegan to try them dur- ing my vocal warm-ups. At first, it was difficult to maintain a smooth- ness of production over a wide pitch range, but once I accepted the fact owanal of Singing, September/Odober 2000 Woes 31, Ne top BLOF that the sound would be small, even with a large lung pressure, the vocal folds began to respond to this strange load. It felt similar to a lip trill, but without the extra sound created at the lips Thave written about the efficacy of the lip trill in a previous issue (Titze, 1996). Further discussion of this exercise was presented by John Nix (1999). In the past, I have viewed it mainly as a warm-up exercis the respiratory system. Large lung pressures can be used with only small vibrations resulting on the up- per medial portion of the vocal fold. Because there is an overall lange posi- tive pressure throughout the vocal tract with this semi-occlusion at the lips, the vocal folds are kept apart, vi brating only with a small amplitude in a horizontal plane. This is healthy for the tissues while the abdominal muscles get a good workout. Phonating into a small-diameter straw accomplishes the same thing. It may have a couple of minor advan- tages in that the sound of the vocal folds can be monitored better (it is not masked by the lip buzz) and, for some people, it eliminates the diffi culty of training the lips to be floppy enough to vibrate. The disadvantage, of course, is that one needs to carry a bunch of straws in one’s pocket. For ingers who travel a lot, both types of warm-ups are useful because they can be done in hotel rooms and in se- mi-noisy places without drawing ex- cessive attention to oneself. for Caprigft 2000 Namal Areca. of Taclne f Singing But what about other dimen- sions of the straws or tubes? If the objective is merely to create a flow re- sistance roughly comparable to that of the glottis in phonation, a diame- ter of roughly 2 to 3 mm works well. ‘The length is not so important. Con. rad (1985) has shown that a down- stream resistance in a soft-walled flow channel can create an upstream oscillation (e¢., at the vocal folds). ‘Thus, the tube resistance may actual- ly help facilitate vocal fold vibration, which is an extra bonus to the respi- ratory warm-up mentioned above. Phonating into a straw simu- lates the semi-occluded vocal tract configuration we often encounter in voiced consonants. There are singers who hate consonants and there are singers who love consonants. Those who love them have learned how to make downstream obstructions (se- mi-occlusions) work to their advan- tage. They launch the vowel with the consonant. This was demonstrated ata recent New York Singing Teach- ers Association seminar by David Adams, who (as many singing teach- ers do) used the voiced consonants /m/, /n/, /2/, /x/, /¥/ as launching pads for the vowels to follow, making sure that the correct pitch is already associated with the consonant Singers who have not discovered the efficacy of playing the muted trum pet (if you buy into the analogy) view consonants as necessary evils, obstacles to sing around, or a mine- field to tiptoe through. 271 don't believe that use of a straw is necessarily any better than use ofa voiced consonant. But some- times it helps to detach oneself from the environment that may have con- tributed to a problem which, for some singers could be less than ideal fluency between articulation and phonation in speech. Once the feel- ing is gained that phonating into a narrow vocal tract is easy, one can return to greater confidence. the consonants with REFERENCES Conrad, W. Collapsile tube model of the larynx. In I. R. Titve & R. C. Sherer (Eds.), Vocal Fold Physiology: Biome- chanics, Acoustics and Phonatory Control (pp. 328-348). Denver: The Denver Center for the Performing Arts, 1985. 28 $24 E Thinks Blaningon, N40 Ea Ingo R. Titze Nix, J. 1999. “Lip trills and raspberries: “High spit factor’ alternatives. to. the nasal continuant consonants.” Journal of Singing, 55 (3) 1999:15-18. Titze, LR. “Lip and tongue trills—what do they do for us?” Journal of Singing, S2 (3) 1996:51-52. Ingo R. Tize is Distinguished Professor of Speech Science and Voice atthe University of Towa and Executive Director of the Wilbur James Gould Voice Research Cen ter atthe Denver Center for the Performing Arts. His formal education is in phgsics and electrical engineering, but he has de voted much of his studies to vocal music ‘and speech. Dr. Titze has published over 150 articles in scientific and educational Journals, co-edited two books titled Vocal Fold Physiology, and has authored a book called Principles of Voice Production. He hhas lectured throughout the world and has ‘appeared on such educational television 800/421.8132 series as Innovation, Quantum, and Be yond 2000. He sa recipient ofthe William ‘and Harriott Gould Award for laryngeal physiology, the Jacob Javits Neuroscience Investigation Award, the Claude Pepper Award, the Quintana Award, and the American Laryngological Association Award. He isa Fellow of the Acoustical So: ciety of America and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Dr. Titze has served on a number of na- tional advisory boards and scientific re view groups, including the Scientific Advi sory Board of the Voice Foundation and the Division of Research Grants of the Na tional Institutes of Health. He is director of the National Center for Voice and Speech, a multi-instructional consortium, In addi tion to his scientific endeavors, Dr. Titze continues to be active as a singer. He is ‘married to Kathy Titze and has four chil dren, Mail should be addressed to Ingo R. Titze, National Center for Voice and Speech, 330 WISHC, Iowa City, IA 52242, ‘Telephone (319) 335-6600, Your Vocal Music Source tismusic.com 5% Discount for online orders Fast, Friendly, Knowledgeable Setvice 15% Off Opera and Broadway Vocal Score Free Catalog Featuring Over 3000 Titles Uacnal Singing